PRESENTATION OF THE PORTRAIT
OF
PATRICK HENRY WINSTON
TO THE
SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA
BY
HIS EXCELLENCY, LOCKE CRAIG
MARCH 31. 1914
His Excellency said:
I have the honor to present to the State the portrait of Patrick Henry
Winston, the gift of his daughter and his three living sons.
lie was born in the county of Franklin, on the 9th day of May, in
the year 1820. His mother was Anne Fuller, daughter of Bartholomew
Fuller, a man whose power and genius are potential in descendants of
this generation. On the paternal side Mr. Winston comes from a family
long illustrious both in England and America, a family whose public
services and private virtues have exemplified in the highest, degree the
greatness of the English race. Son of a Winston mother was John
Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, who saved England from the dominion
of France; son of a Winston mother was Patrick Henry, who saved
America from the dominion of England.
Of such stock William Winston, immigrant, came to Virginia in
1666, seeking in the new' world fame, fortune, and honor. The records
of the Virginia land office show his eagerness for acquiring land, and the
vestry records of St. Peter’s Parish, Hew Kent County, manifest his
piety and hospitality.
From the virile loins of William Winston came a stock of men and
women, unsurpassed in the annals of America for genius, for character,
for achievement. In the second generation was William Winston, colonel
in the Colonial Army, conspicuous for bravery in the French and Indian
wars, “a greater orator than Patrick Henry,” says William Wirt; in the
third generation was Patrick Henry and his cousin Joseph Winston,
hero of King’s Mountain and Guilford Court-House; in the fourth
generation was Dolly Madison, and her cousin, William Winston Seaton,
founder of modern journalism, editor of the great Whig organ, the
National Intelligencer; in the fifth generation were John Anthony Win¬
ston, Governor of Alabama, and Patrick Henry Winston of North
Carolina, whose portrait is before us.
But Patrick Henry Winston has a title to nobility more indefeasible
than that of descent. When the courtiers of Napoleon would please
him by tracing hack his pedigree to the Dukes of Treviso, he cut them
574
